New motion asks judge to ignore advice to keep emails between Saints, archdiocese sealed in clergy abuse suit

By Ramon Antonio Vargas And Amie Just
Nola.com
April 24, 2020

https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_b8d4efe6-8688-11ea-af7f-7f6a30ef9d9e.html

In this Oct. 23, 2016, file photo, a New Orleans Saints helmet rests on the playing field before an NFL football game in Kansas City, Mo. Photo by Jeff Roberson

Attorneys for an alleged clergy sex abuse victim asked a New Orleans judge Friday to reject a court official’s recommendation that hundreds of emails between the New Orleans Saints and the Archdiocese of New Orleans should remain hidden from public view.

The plaintiff’s legal team argued that the recommendation from retired Judge Carolyn Gill-Jefferson erred on several counts, including her suggestion to also seal all materials uncovered in the future by the discovery process of the lawsuit in question.

“No defendant or third party had sought such sweeping relief,” a plaintiff filing said Friday.

The filing also expressed incredulity that Gill-Jefferson had apparently not read any of the emails between officials with Saints and the archdiocese. Yet, the filing noted, Gill-Jefferson deemed them inadmissible as evidence at a trial while also declaring their release to the public as unduly “embarrassing” for those who participated in the communications.

“Documents that deal in any way with the sexual abuse of children … should not be out of the public realm,” said the filing, addressed to Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Ellen Hazeur, who is presiding over the unidentified plaintiff’s lawsuit.

Neither attorneys for the Saints nor the church, who have battled to keep the emails private, immediately responded to a request for comment Friday evening.

The dispute turns on a suit for damages from a man who claims he was sexually molested in the 1970s and 1980s by George Brignac, a sidelined church deacon and suspected serial child molester who is fighting criminal charges in an unrelated case.

The plaintiff’s attorneys, through discovery, unearthed roughly 300 emails between Saints brass, archdiocesan officials and other local notables. Most were placed under a confidentiality order at the Saints’ and the church’s request.

The Associated Press waded into the case and asked Hazeur to make those emails public. The plaintiff’s attorneys joined the AP in arguing that Brignac, 84, was a public hazard, and the emails had information that might help community members protect themselves from someone who was allowed to read at Masses until the summer of 2018.

Hazeur referred the matter to Gill-Jefferson, whom she brought in to help sort through an often Byzantine discovery process. Gill-Jefferson heard arguments from both sides on Feb. 20 and wrote in an April 9 recommendation that the evidence did not support the AP or the plaintiff.

One point she made was that the emails would not make it easier for members of the public to recognize Brignac — who is under house arrest — if he were out on the street.

“There is no way for the general public to know who George Brignac is and to distinguish him from any other person who may be accused of multiple sexual assaults against children,” Gill-Jefferson wrote on April 9.

It is Hazeur’s call whether the emails are revealed, though any ruling from her can be appealed. The plaintiff’s filing Friday asks Hazeur to schedule a hearing and rule that the emails belong in the public domain. No hearing was immediately set.

The two sides’ portrayals of the emails could hardly be more different.

The Saints say archdiocesan officials contacted them and other civic leaders after deciding to put Brignac on a list with other clergymen who had faced credible allegations of child molestation. Team officials say their advice to Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who released the list in November 2018, was to be transparent and inform law enforcement.

Yet the plaintiff’s lawyers say leadership of the Saints and NBA’s Pelicans worked with other influential figures in the “state, federal and private sectors” to soften media coverage. The plaintiff has repeatedly noted that Aymond is close friends with Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson.